Spring 2012

Uniting Communities to Save Reefs

The Coral Alliance (CORAL) unites and Protecting empowers communities to save coral reefs. We help the people who live near reefs protect their fragile resources by providing the means to develop local projects that Roatan’s Reefs save coral reefs and benefit communities. t’s well before dawn and Barie Jackson Thanks to several recent grants from Iis already hard at work. Barie is the CORAL, Barie and his team have a new “The new materials have helped greatly Patrol Coordinator at the Roatan Marine suite of tools to help them protect the in training new officers andp ark rangers,” Park (RMP) in Honduras, and this morning preserve’s underwater ecosystem. At says Barie. “They are also extremely use- he’s racing down a ten kilometer stretch the end of 2011, the RMP staff partnered ful when informing tourists or suspects of of coastline in search of reported spear with marine protected area management regulations.” fishers off the island’s western end. experts—including CORAL—to renovate According to Nic Bach, Director of Roatan is the largest of Honduras’ Bay the RMP’s patrol system. The team Communications and Marine Infrastructure Islands. The once little-known destination created a host of new tools ranging from for the RMP, access to these resources has seen independent tourism skyrocket a quick reference waterproof guide to assists both RMP’s patrol team—and the and cruise ship visitation more than Honduran marine law, to case-specific re- national police they partner with—in more quadruple over the past decade, porting forms, and a comprehensive elec- effectively monitoring Roatan’s waters. overwhelming the island’s infrastructure tronic database of criminal activities within “The new management resources and and stressing the fragile ecosystem. the park. Additionally, the patrol team is expanded patrol fleet help us better These make protected areas now equipped with four fully operational understand and enforce the rules and like the Sandy Bay-West Marine Reserve, boats, as well as a spare engine to reduce regulations governing the RMP, and better which encompasses about twenty square downtime. These new resources allow communicate with the police and other kilometers (almost eight square miles) of the four patrol officers to more effectively parties involved,” he states. Roatan’s nearshore waters, a necessity. monitor three key areas: Sandy Bay-West The comprehensive management Four full-time park rangers regularly End Marine Reserve, Cordelia Banks, and system, supported by access to patrol Roatan’s protected areas. These a ten kilometer stretch between Dixon necessary resources such as boats, is a patrol officers partner with national police Cove and Jonesville. replicable model for successful steward- to prevent illegal fishing, avert mangrove ship of marine protected areas along the damage from coastal development, and Mesoamerican Reef. ensure the safety of marine recreational users. “The police provide our patrols with the muscle to enforce the regula- tions,” explains Barie. Born and raised on Roatan, Barie’s instincts for this kind of work are spot-on. He’s innately aware of the favorite haunts of marine critters as well as illegal fishers. As a young child, he dreamed of becoming a police officer—drawn to the order, execution, and level of respect associated with the position. Now, Barie says, he’s found his “dream job.” As a New management resources and an park ranger with the RMP, he is able to expanded patrol fleet help the Roatan interact with people, uphold the law, and Marine Park’s patrol team safeguard Roatan’s remarkable ecosystem. protect the place where he grew up. Photo courtesy of Roatan Marine Park

SPRING 2012 Photo by Dan Norton THE ALLIANCE (CORAL) “Uniting Communities to Save Coral Reefs” CORAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS H. William Jesse, Jr., Board Chair C. Elizabeth Wagner, Secretary James R. Tolonen, Treasurer Curtis R. Berrien, Vice Chair of Advancement Linda Cain Paula Hayes Nancy Knowlton Elizabeth Ulmer BREAKING NEWS FROM CORAL STAFF Executive Director CORAL’S PROJECT SITES Michael Webster Conservation Programs Director Rick MacPherson Director of Finance and Administration Christine Reyes MESOAMERICA INDO-PACIFIC Development Director MEXICO: Our CORAL Reef Leaders FIJI: Recently, CORAL headquarters program Sarah Freiermuth expanded the Environmental Walk- staff spent five weeks in Fiji learning what Assistant Director of Conservation Programs Through (EWT) survey area to include resources community leaders need to take on Jason Vasques , Cancun, and Puerto Morelos autonomous leadership of local conservation Conservation Grants Manager (part of Riviera Maya); we are now actively management, our ultimate goal in all of our Kate Trevelyan-Hall conducting EWT assessments in the three project sites. • CORAL trained and qualified Communications Manager main tourist sites in the Mexican Caribbean twenty residents of Kubulau and nine residents Susan Wolf and consequently reaching more than ten of Wainunu as fish wardens; these individuals Accountant million tourists per year. • CORAL and our now join the larger group of wardens charged Anne Shelley nonprofit partners encouraged govern- with enforcing Fiji’s fishing laws and managing Conservation Programs Associate ment officials to adopt our comprehensive local marine protected areas. and Coral Reef CSI Coordinator environmental performance assessment Candace Leong program as the universal instrument used INDONESIA: CORAL trained twelve conserva- Membership Assistant to examine all companies working within tion leaders, each representing a different Simone Sheridan the Cozumel Marine Park. partner institution in Indonesia, to identify and Development Assistant report —enhancing our ability to Malinda Shishido BELIZE: CORAL partnered with San monitor the wide-spread bleaching event that Regional Managers Pedro Junior College to conduct a has devastated the country’s coral populations. Kenneth Johnson (Mesoamerica) Conservation in Action workshop, • In Raja Ampat, CORAL announced the winners Naneng Setiasih () engaging tourism students in real-time of our Sharks for the Future student writing and Field Managers coral reef conservation efforts. During the drawing contest. Elementary and high school Liz Foote (Hawaii) two-day workshop, participants developed students from throughout the region used their Jenny Myton (Honduras) three action plans that leveraged tourism own words and pictures to advocate for shark Sunil Prasad (Fiji) Valentine Rosado (Belize) resources for coral reef conservation and conservation. initiated a mangrove restoration project Field Representatives within a new town park. Kelly Thomas Brown (Fiji Shark Campaign) U.S. STATES & Sirilo “Didi” Dulunaqio (Fiji) Adriana Gonzalez (Mexico) HONDURAS: As part of recent efforts TERRITORIES Kara Osada-D’Avella (Hawaii) to optimize patrolling within the Roatan Riyan Heri Pamungkas (Indonesia) Marine Park, CORAL provided the patrol HAWAII: To better understand the status Manoa Rasigatale (Fiji Shark Campaign) Helen Sykes (Fiji Shark Campaign) fleet with a microgrant for a new engine. of sustainable tourism and reef stewardship Moala Tokota’a (Fiji) With four fully operational boats, patrol in Hawaii’s accommodations sector, CORAL officers can increase vigilance over target recently launched a baseline survey targeting Copyright © 2012 by the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL) areas within the reserve. • CORAL is more than 100 hotels and resorts statewide. Editor: Alexa Bach-McElrone Designer: Damien Scogin {[email protected]} planning a sustainable-operations training Survey questions reach beyond standard Contributing Authors: Sarah Freiermuth and Alexa Bach-McElrone for fishermen frequenting Cordelia Banks, water and energy saving efforts, to identify a haven for endangered key opportunities for CORAL to advance the CORAL is published quarterly by the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL), an IRS 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization. and many fish species. industry’s sustainability best practices for the Copies of our audited financial statement are available at www.coral.org or by phone request. protection of coral reefs. For comments, questions, or contributions to CORAL Current, please email us at [email protected].

SPRING 2012 Co-Management Saves Coral Reefs

Photo courtesy of Rebecca Weeks/Marine Photobank

How can we best band together to protect coral reef ecosystems, Collaborative management, or co- What makes a co-management system small-scale reef fisheries, and the management, regimes emerged in work? This team of experts identified sev- communities that depend on them? response to the perceived inability of eral key elements including transparent traditional top-down government efforts to operations, stakeholder liaisons, economic hat is precisely what an international team regulate common resources like reef fish. diversification, and an equitable distribu- Tof seventeen scientists set out to answer In this study, the largest field investigation tion of power within the community. in a study published in the Proceedings of of co-managed tropical coral reef fisheries Surprisingly, the team found that market the National Academy of Sciences last ever conducted, researchers compared access was a stronger factor in reef fishery month. Led by researchers from Australia’s various co-management structures to iden- health than local human population size. ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef tify the optimal organizational framework This suggests limiting market access to Studies, the team examined forty-two coral for protecting both the health of the marine reef fish can preserve local conservation reef fisheries and co-management systems environment and the local community. efforts. Also, to ensure the reef system in Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, Indonesia, Scientists interviewed more than 1,000 is protected, researchers emphasized and Papua New Guinea. Generally, the local fishers and community leaders, the need for socio-ecological education, researchers concluded that—in the right conducted underwater fish counts, and environmental stewardship incentives, and context—co-management can be successful analyzed libraries of secondary data like graduated sanctions. at meeting both social and ecological goals. population size, occupational diversity, CORAL’s collaborative achievements in This study is an affirmation of CORAL’s and government regulations, to learn how Fiji’s Kubulau District offer support of the approach to coral reef conservation. “Most of institutional design and socio-economic study’s findings. The Kubulau Resource the world’s coral reefs are found in develop- factors impact reef fish biomass, com- Management Committee is a stakeholder ing countries—places where formal, western- munity compliance, and livelihoods. liaison that creates locally appropriate style fisheries management and enforcement More than half of the fishers and key rules, encourages partner participation, is either absent or ineffective,” explains Dr. stakeholders surveyed felt they benefited and sources adequate resources to Michael Webster, CORAL’s Executive Director. from the co-managed protected area; and manage and monitor natural resources “With this study, ARC’s research team has eighty-eight percent reported compliance effectively. New revenue streams from confirmed that empowering and engaging with the co-management agreements. tourism and conservation help to diversify local communities can yield benefits to both When compared to other reef systems, Kubulau’s economy and relieve the local community and the coral reefs.” co-managed reefs were half as likely to on fishers to provide sustenance and be overfished as those solely managed by income. Villagers have more employment top-down or bottom-up directives. options (as ecotourism entrepreneurs, “In an age when fisheries around the for example) and everyone has access world are collapsing, fisheries experts to tools such as CORAL’s microgrant have struggled to find the magic balance program—which offers recipients op- between livelihoods and conservation. portunities to participate in, and gain What we’ve found is that effective solu- from, protecting critical marine resources. tions require both top-down and bottom- Ultimately, the marine ecosystem is up approaches with a foundation of protected and the entire community is community-based management,” explains engaged in and benefiting from coral reef Dr. Tim McClanahan, a coral reef fisheries conservation. expert at the Wildlife Conservation Society To read the full study, visit Photo courtesy of Arc Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and co-author on the study. http://www.pnas.org/content/109/14/5219.

SPRING 2012 Building Alliances in

n February, CORAL partnered with Reef Namena’s dive tag sales are reinvested Planning Agency, a local government ICheck Indonesia to conduct a one-day in reserve management and provided for entity in east Bali. workshop for several Indonesian government community development initiatives, like As our CRSD work in Amed expands, agencies who are involved in CORAL’s school scholarships. In Amed, proceeds we will continue to build cooperative CRSD efforts in the Amed region of Bali. The from dive tags will fund coral reef conservation alliances to ensure we ten government officials represented the conservation initiatives and waste control achieve long-lasting to coral National Planning Agency, the Ministry of measures, such as garbage bins, marine reef threats in Indonesia. Tourism and Creative Economy, the Ministry debris traps, and composting facilities. of Environment, the Ministry of Marine Affairs CORAL’s work session ignited important and Fisheries, and the Ministry of Agriculture. dialogue between government agencies. During the morning session, we updated By dissecting these case studies, govern- the government delegates on recent prog- ment officials, CORAL staff, and -com ress in the Amed and Bunutan villages, munity partners, were able to collectively where CORAL is currently working with the identify several strategies for increased community to protect nearby coral reefs efficacy in Amed and Bunutan and garner from being trashed—literally. Over the past support for our efforts as a whole. decade, Amed has become a booming In the afternoon, the group visited the tourist destination, but it lacks sufficient village of Amed, in east Bali. There, the infrastructure to handle increased visitation government representatives were able to and to treat the waste generated from the personally discuss the project with local thriving industry. stakeholders and hear firsthand testimony In collaboration with key stakeholder describing how the community has ben- groups, CORAL launched several projects efited from conservation initiatives. to protect Amed’s marine environment from “Indonesia has shifted from a top-down the damage caused by garbage drifting off- to a more bottom-up planning approach shore. For example, CORAL’s field staff led and, therefore, we would support any the charge to create collectible dive tags, program that arises from, and gives Indonesian government officials visit seeking to replicate the success of our dive benefit to, the people,” explains Abdul CORAL’s project site in Bunutan. tag project in Fiji’s Namena Marine Reserve. Haris, staff of the Spatial Planning and Photo by Riyan Heri Each year, thousands of dollars from Conservation section of Karangasem’s A New Line of Defense for Fiji’s Sharks iji’s sharks, and CORAL’s campaign to Fiji’s police officers, often the first line of new jerseys sponsored by CORAL, he Fprotect them, have gained a few dozen defense in protecting Fiji’s coral reefs, are encouraged Fiji’s conservation community formidable allies. This season, both the a critical component of successful shark to use the police network to facilitate shark Police Sharks rugby league team and the conservation in Fiji. Commissioner of Police, conservation, and affirmed his commitment Somosomo Sharks club team are urging Brigadier-General Ioane Naivalurua, explains to the cause. “You have my assurance that their fans to save Fiji’s sharks. that “the work of police officers now covers our officers will help spread the message Like sharks, rugby is ingrained in Fijian a wide range of issues, and one of impor- of the importance of protecting sharks and culture; the sport has been declared the tance is that of policing the environment.” our environment both on and off the field,” nation’s most popular pastime and the country In a public statement following receipt of he stated. has the highest player-to-population ratio of any rugby-playing nation, according to the International Rugby Board. The two newly sponsored teams will raise awareness of the shark’s plight and CORAL’s shark sanctuary campaign as they tour Fiji’s 300+ islands and beyond, reaching thousands of rugby fans who may not normally be plugged into Fiji’s conservation community. Additionally, the Fiji Police Sharks rugby league team—the current holder of the International Police Rugby Photo courtesy of the League World Cup—will carry our cause to the Fiji Police UK as they defend their title this year.

SPRING 2012 Belize: A Strategic Decision

n a difficult and carefully deliberated Over the past seven years, CORAL: Iorganizational decision, CORAL elected to suspend our field operations in Belize ›› Trained more than 200 participants at the end of 2011. While we have made at Sustainable Marine Recreation tremendous strides in launching local workshops; conservation projects that both protect ›› Awarded $92,000 in microgrants; Belize’s spectacular coral reefs and benefit nearby communities, we have ›› Planted ninety-seven mangroves; been unable to identify the long-term ›› Conducted Environmental Walk- funding necessary to maintain our pro- Through assessments for thirty- gram there. In contrast, each of our other nine marine recreation providers; program sites has secured long-term anchor financing to support our ongoing ›› Installed thirty-two mooring buoys; conservation work. These capital ›› Educated twenty-two CORAL Reef constraints prohibit us from sustaining Leaders; the high level of impact that CORAL wishes to create in Belize. ›› Held six lionfish tournaments, Despite these challenges, CORAL removing more than 3,600 fish; has made tremendous advances in and community-based coral reef conserva- ›› Designed and erected two reef tion in Belize. Our efforts have provided etiquette signs. local communities with the knowledge, skills, and resources to protect their re- Photo by Val Rosado markable coral reef systems and to keep We are very proud of our accomplish- this momentum going until we identify ments in Belize and are extremely grateful opportunities to re-engage. to Val Rosado for leading this effort.

If you can’t attend the ICRS in July, you will be able to view the proceedings after the conference at www.reefbase.org; ReefBase is an online warehouse of ICRS 2012 coral reef knowledge managed by the WorldFish Center in Penang, Malaysia. very four years, the world’s leading coral reef scientists, resource managers, The proceedings of all past symposia are Econservationists, economists, and graduate students convene at the currently available. International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) to elevate global understanding of the state or our coral reefs and devise strategic solutions for the conservation and management of these precious resources. The International Society for Reef Studies will hold this year’s symposium in Cairns, Australia from July 9 – 13. More than 2,500 coral reef professionals, representing approximately eighty countries, will collaborate to increase global awareness of reef degradation and construct lasting solutions to protect coral reefs and their communities. This year, six CORAL staff members will join the largest gathering of coral reef specialists in the world to showcase our successful conservation and management efforts. Three team members will present recent work:

›› Rick MacPherson, Conservation Programs Director, will discuss Dive tourism professionals as a climate change early warning and communication network; ›› Naneng Setiasih, Coral Triangle Regional Manager, will examine Climate change adaptation strategies in Coral Triangle reef management; and ›› Jason Vasques, Assistant Director of Conservation Programs, will present Embracing invasive species management: lionfish control along the Mesoamerican Reef. Photo courtesy of Mary Lou Frost

SPRING 2012 THE CORAL REEF ALLIANCE Non-Profit 351 California Street, Suite 650 U.S. Postage Paid San Francisco, CA 94104 Redwood City, CA Permit No. 688 www.coral.org

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e nvi r o n men t a l b e n e f its s tatemen t of using post-consumer waste fiber vs. virgin fiber CORAL saved the following resources by using New Leaf Sakura Silk, made with 100% de-inked recycled fiber and 50% post-consumer waste, processed chlorine free, and manufactured with electricity that is offset with Green-e® certified renewable energy certificates: greenhouse trees water energy solid waste gases

3 1,509 2 141 351 fully grown gallons million Btu pounds pounds

Calculations based on research by Environmental Defense Fund and other members of the Paper Task Force. www.newleafpaper.com

Log on to www.coral.org to sign up for E-Current, our free electronic newsletter. CORAL CURRENT The Newsletter of the Coral Reef Alliance CRITTER QUIZ Who Am I? Hint: This coral reef critter is a well-known camouflage specialist, skilled at blending seamlessly with the spiky branches of its soft coral habitat. Can you identify this critter? Visit www.coral.org by July 1 to submit your answer and enter for a chance Photo by Jeff Yonover to win an authentic Fiji rugby shirt or a Fiji Shark Campaign t-shirt.

SPRING 2012